The Hawaiian gazette., 1887-04-26
Modern War Ships.
ENGLISH TESTIMONY AS TO THEIR CosT
AND EFFICIENCY.

=
recent address, gave his views as fol
lows: The first cost of a 100-gun
line-of-battle ship at the beginning of
the century was about Eos, 1000 to 60
0O& armament and ordnance stores
being excluded, while now the Ira
falgar and Nile. designed in 1885,
were estimated at SS60,000 each.
Adding the value of guns, ammuni
ton and stores, it might be said that
the captain of the Trafalgar had the
responsibility of navigating and fight
ing a machine representing a million
sterling. The estimated value of the
largest Frenclsiron-clad was from
j 6600,000 to 9650,000, and the Russian
from f700,00O to 100000. In the In
\ flexible the armor plating alone cost
f17O,OOO, and the propelling machin-
cry S126.000, the hydraulic gun
II mountings and auxiliary engines of
ii various kinds S55,000 These three
II items alone would have produced five
first-rates of Nelson's time. The cost
of a completed ship represents twelve
Illustrates of 1900, seven of 1910, and
tRree and a half of 1859. For the
same sum of money there could now
I be procured four powerful protected
Il cruisers, steaming twenty knots an
fSz5ur-six knots faster than the In
fexfbl e-and carrying guns capable
of piercing twenty inches of wrought
iron at 1000 yards; or feet of
thirty to forty swift torpedo craft of
various sizes, steaming twenty to
twenty-five knots an hour. Who was
\ to decide what was the best invest
ment of million sterling when such
different appropriations were posi-
\ BILE? The growth of cost ran through
the various classes Of modern fleets.
To obtain a sloop- of-war of modern
\ type, carrying six or eight guns, cost
little less than did the I00-gun three
decker of 1900. To build and equip
a torpedo boat of first-class costs
nearly as much as a sailing frigate of
fifty guns in Nelson's time. Large
as had been the sums annually spent
on shipbuilding during the last quar-
ter of century, they had not been
large enough in proportion to the
number and cost of the new ships in
hand to permit of rapid construction.
Ills uudUCldl 1lLllldl1Ous vi hd1G III
funds in relation to work incomplete,
had sadly hampered hindered pro-
gTess and completion. Lengthening
out the time over which ship had
been on hand, it had indirectly added
to the cost and had given time for
y the numerous alterations and addi-
tions to which he had referred. The
Royal Navy was now very strong in
armored ships, as was testified in no
measured terms by the recent French
official reports, and IN the financial
year about to begin this portion of
thu feet available for service would
be strengthened by the completion of
a large number of new swift ships.
But foreign navies without exception
were making strenuous efforts to
strengthen the classes of swift pro
tected cruisers and torpedo craft,
and with our worldwide empire and
enormous commercial and shipping
interests, this movement abroad COM
PEELED action here For many rea-
sons this development of the swift
cruiser classes was to be welcomed.
Such vessels were admirably adapted
to the characteristics Of the British
sailor, and would give scope for fresh
displays of that mingled audacity
and skill which had become a tradi-
tion in the service since the time
when the small but swift-sailing
handy vessels of the English feet
played havoc with the huge but I'm
wieldly vessels of the Spanish Anna
4, MAJ, ,.nfo,.n,,on n +hn liz.
use of mercantile auxiliaries in time
IF war, he said that he heartily sym
pathized with all that had been done
in the last ten years to encourage
methods of construction and subdi-
vision which would better fit these
vessels to receive an armament of
guns and TO be capable of fighting.
He believed that in many ways these
armed vessels would be of immense
value to the country in time of war,
but he did not concur in the opinion
that they could be treated as substi-
tutes, for regular warships, and that
the navy could be reduced IN num-
bers because these auxiliaIies might
be available; for there were radical
and unavoidable differences in struc
tmks, protection, machinery and
steering gear, as we'll as hardness
- and capability of using their arma-
ments, between such vessels and
regular built fighting ships.
Admiral Lord Charles Beresford
says 'for his part he believed that
we had reached the end. Of the days
of heavy armor-clsd ships. But if
other nations built them we must do
so too, for we could not afford to let
any nation construct ship that
would be superior in size to any YES
sci in our feet. The mere fact that
the admiralty had determined TO
build the Nile and Trafalgar, would
show that England was determined
10 build ships larger than those pos
sessed by the French, recognizing
our greater means, would abstain